"Love for Sale" - Cole Porter - Jessica Yafanaro

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"Love for Sale" - Cole Porter - Jessica Yafanaro

This is my take on Cole Porter's "Love for Sale".

This video is from a collaboration with Cuyhoga Community College's Jazz Studies Program and Grammy award-winning vocalist Janis Siegel (The Manhattan Transfer). This was an amazing opportunity to work side-by-side a truly profound vocalist. The day of the performance, I got extremely sick to the point of not even being able to talk, but somehow, I was actually able to sing at the show. I cannot express how much I appreciate such rare opportunities! It was truly an honor. Thanks to everyone in the Jazz Studies program for making this possible!

Music and Lyrics by Cole Porter
Arrangement by Jessica Yafanaro
Bass: Aidan Plank
Drums: Dan Fernandez
Guitar: Brian Kozak
Piano: Jackie Warren
Video edited by Adam Smalley
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From Wikipedia:

"Love for Sale" is a song from the musical The New Yorkers which opened on Broadway on December 8, 1930 and closed in May 1931 after 168 performances. The song is written from the viewpoint of a prostitute advertising "love for sale".

"Love for Sale" was originally considered in bad taste, even scandalous. In the initial Broadway production, it was performed by Kathryn Crawford, portraying a streetwalker, with three girlfriends (Waring's Three Girl Friends) as back-up singers, in front of Reuben's, a popular restaurant of the time. As a response to the criticism, the song was transferred from the white Crawford to the African American singer Elisabeth Welch, who sang with back-up singers in a scene set in front of Harlem's Cotton Club.

Despite the fact the song was banned from radio airplay, or perhaps because of it, it became a hit, with Libby Holman's version going to #5 and the "Fred Waring's Pennsylvanians" version going to #14, both in 1931. (All other 1931 recordings of the song were as an instrumental.)